New York, NY (July 20, 2026)—Listening to The Midnight is like going back in time, because the band’s lyrics may be filled with modern wistfulness, but they’re encased in sleek, synth-drenched pop that recalls 1985 all the way down to the wailing sax solos and shimmering keytars. The duo—Tim McEwan and Tyler Lyle—released its fifth album, Syndicate, last year and has been circling the globe ever since on its Time Machines tour (or at least Lyle has; McEwan has retired from the road).
Expanded to a band of six for live work, The Midnight has hit China, Australia, India and Europe in recent months, and while there’s a North American tour leg starting up in September, it comes hot on the heels of the 23-date U.S. run that ended in May, where the band played 2,000-3,000-seaters like the Paramount Theatre in Seattle and the Hollywood Palladium along the way.
Tackling mixing duties for the spring trek were TJ Elias, front-of-house engineer, and Hamish Dickinson, a former touring drummer (more on that later) turned production manager/monitor engineer. While the U.S. tour used the house P.A. at every stop, it ensured consistency night after night by carrying video, lighting and audio control systems, all sourced from production provider LMG in Orlando, Fla.
At the FOH position, Elias mixed nightly on a DiGiCo SD12 console, using mostly onboard effects, but running Live Professor for some vocal chains that employed plug-ins like Waves Doubler and Primary Source Expander. “PSE has been great with cleaning up the vocals, especially since Tyler’s on a wireless mic and he’s moving around the stage a good bit,” said Elias.
The key to presenting the band’s meticulously curated sound, he said, was to present it as-is: “I always want to keep that ‘live band’ aspect, but still make it feel like a record out front. To me, a front of house engineer’s job is to amplify what’s been given to you and put that together in the best, cleanest way possible. Aside from maybe adding some effects here and there, a band should give you all the texture you need—and they tend to do that if you just stay out of their way.”
At stageside, Dickinson tackled monitors on an Allen & Heath dLive desk, providing mixes to the band’s in-ear monitors—a selection of 64 Audio, Ultimate Ears and JH Audio earpieces. “We’re on the new Shure Axient Digital PSM system,” he said, “although I am running it in Analog FM Mode because it was an easy setup and there’s no panning around with things. We just have eight frequencies, which includes five band members— because our drummer is hardwired—a guest, myself and our video tech on stage right.”
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Vocal mics were a mix of Shure KSM9 capsules on wireless handhelds used by frontman Lyle and keyboardist OBLVYN, while bassist/MD Oliver McEwan and guitarist/keyboardist Rhett Shull used sE V7s.
Elsewhere on stage, Justin Klunk’s saxophone was captured with a wireless Beta98 on a horn clip, and two guitar cabinets were each miked in stereo using sE V7X and sE8 mics. The drum kit was captured with both a Shure Beta 91A and an Audix D6 on the kick, AKG C451s on the hi-hats and a stacker, sE4400 condensers for overheads, and a beyerdynamic M 201 on snare top and a Shure KSM137 on bottom, along with four V-Drums feeding into a Roland TM-6 drum trigger module.
That drum kit was readily familiar to Dickinson when the U.S. leg began, but he got to know it much better during the tour’s east coast swing. Drummer Kwesi Robinson became extremely sick during a show and when he couldn’t finish it, Dickinson jumped on stage to sit in for the encore. The next day in Boston, he filled in behind the kit, playing the entire show without rehearsa—and then did it again the next two nights as well, ensuring their Brooklyn and Pittsburgh shows could go on as planned.
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Speaking with Mix a few days later, Dickinson didn’t even mention it had happened—the epitome of a team player—but pulling off triple duty as production manager, monitor engineer and fill-in drummer? It’s all in a day’s work with The Midnight.
